This weekend Val Thorens celebrates “Le Grand Dernier”, the resort’s last lift-served days of the 2025/26 Alpine season. It has been quite a season, with some memorable and some sobering highlights.
The 60th FIS Alpine World Cup season was defined by legendary comebacks and historic firsts: Mikaela Shiffrin secured her sixth Overall World Cup title, equalling the legendary Annemarie Moser-Pröll; Lindsey Vonn claimed her 83rd career victory in the St. Moritz downhill at age 41; and Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, now representing Brazil, made history in Levi as the first skier to win an Alpine World Cup race for a South American nation.
The Winter Olympics returned to the heart of the Italian Alps, and the home athletes certainly delivered. Federica Brignone won an emotional gold in the Super-G on home snow, completing a fairytale recovery from major leg fractures just a year prior. Meanwhile Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen became the breakout star of the Games, securing a golden treble in the speed events.
Whilst competitive winter sports were spectacular, the season was marred by a tragic surge in avalanche fatalities across Europe, largely triggered by a persistent weak layer of sugar snow formed early in December, which became buried under nearly 2.5 metres of heavy January snowfall. This created a ticking time bomb snowpack that caught even experienced off-piste skiers off guard.
The most notable trends in ski tourism include the increased interest in Norway, aided by a weaker Krone, the increasing attraction of relatively crowd-free Furano and Tomamu in Hokkaido and the increase in bookings for snow-sure resorts like Val Thorens and Obergurgl. Many lower resorts are surely going to suffer in future seasons unless they can broaden their winter appeal.
Conversely more snow-sure resorts continue to invest in infrastructure, with Les Deux Alpes, Courchevel and Ischgl all making significant investment in new lifts.
The 2024-25 season saw a record 399 million global skier visits, a 7.8% increase from the previous year. While this growth was widespread, the report highlights that the Alpine countries—Austria, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, and Switzerland—collectively account for 14% of the world’s estimated 150 million skiers. This places the Alpine region, including Switzerland, as a key pillar of the global ski market, alongside Western Europe (20%), the Americas (20%), and Asia-Pacific (33%). Notably, the 2024-25 season saw strong demand despite below-average snow in parts of Europe, with snowmaking and operations helping to maintain visitation levels. While countries like the U.S., Italy, and Russia exceeded pre-Covid averages, the report notes that Japan and Germany have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. China once again leads the ranking of countries performing above their historic pre-Covid five-year average.
The leading ski nations are:
1 United States — 61.6 million (+1.8%)
2 France — 54.8 million (+5.6%)
3 Austria — 51.9 million (+3.6%)
4 Italy — 34.8 million (+8.8%)
5 Japan — 28.2 million (+15.6%)
6 Switzerland — 26.3 million (+13.7%)
7 China — 26.1 million (+13.0%)
8 Canada — 19.8 million (+13.1%)
9 Sweden — 10.2 million (-2.9%)
The findings were released at the Mountain Planet trade show in Grenoble, France in the The International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism 2024/5.
The unusually warm Winter has taken its first significant closure at the wonderful Minschuns ski area. The Communications Officer for Sportanlagen AG, Val Müstair, informs me that “Due to the critical snow conditions in Val Müstair, the Minschuns winter sports area will close its facilities as early as Sunday, March 15, 2026”.
Switzerland is fortunate to have some of the very best ski resorts in the world, and Zermatt and Verbier are amongst the very best. But how do they compare?
The Matterhorn, above Zermatt
Location Both resorts are in the Pennine Alps in the Swiss canton of Valais, and both are high, particularly Zermatt. The most obvious difference between them is that Zermatt is in the part of Switzerland where a uniquely Swiss form of German is spoken, whereas Verbier is French-speaking. Verbier rests on a sunny plateau above the valley of Bagnes, whereas Zermatt lies right at the head of a long steep valley. The nearest international airport to Verbier is Geneva, whilst Zermatt is equally served by Geneva and Zurich airports. Both relatively convenient for international visitors.
Pistes Zermatt has 360km of piste spread over four highly integrated ski areas in Switzerland and two across the border in Italy. Although Verbier is part of the extensive Four Valleys, with 412km of piste, the valleys are less well connected than Zermatt, and you will probably not get round to visiting some of the more remote slopes beyond Siviez. Honours even.
Season Pretty much nowhere in the world can beat Zermatt for year-round skiing. Granted that summer skiing is something of a novelty, Zermatt nonetheless offers extensive glacier skiing from the beginning of November right through to the end of May, with the full extent of the resort available from the beginning of December until the end of April. Verbier normally opens up one piste in November, and the resort progressively opens up in the following weeks. Normally the season finishes in mid-April. For early and late season skiing, nothing beats Zermatt, but it can get very cold in the heart of the winter. Zermatt for early and late season, Verbier edges it for mid-season.
Beginners Neither resort is especially good for beginners, but Verbier does have a nursery area in the village. Unless you are coming with a mixed ability party which includes experts, or you just want to party, neither resort is recommended for beginners. You pay a premium in these resorts because of challenging slopes a beginner will never get to experience. Beginners should look elsewhere but, if you had to choose, Verbier is better.
Intermediates I think both resorts are excellent for intermediates. If you come for a week or two you will never want for more variety or challenge, or for nice cruisy runs when you have a hangover to shake off. Even Stevens.
Expert Both resorts have good skiing for experts, but if you want to stick to ungroomed trails and challenging lift-served off-piste, Verbier has more to offer. For back-country ski touring they both make excellent bases, and both lie on the famous Haute Route (Verbier only on a variation of the classic route). Verbier is my recommendation.
Apres-ski Apres-ski in Switzerland is generally more subdued than in other Alpine nations, but Verbier and Zermatt are exceptions to the rule. They both rock, but I prefer… Zermatt.
Mountain Restaurants Both resorts have a mix of cafeteria restaurants with sunny balconies and charming restaurants in the mountains. However Zermatt is something of an epicurean’s delight with some of the most outstanding mountain restaurants in the world. Not really a contest if you want haute cuisine for lunch. But it comes at a price. In the resorts themselves there is a wide range of options from street food to Michelin-starred restaurants. The Blue Ribbon goes to Zermatt.
Lunch above Verbier
Resort Charm Lying beneath the Matterhorn, nowhere quite matches Zermatt for chocolate box pretty. It is car-free, although not traffic-free as the electric taxis and service vehicles mean some streets are quite busy. It has a fabulous Alpine tradition stretching back many centuries, and was well-established as a tourist destination by the middle of the 19th Century. Verbier, conversely, is largely a post-war resort, but it’s ubiquitous chalet-style architecture is not without its charm. Zermatt has it all.
Access – Car You can’t drive to Zermatt, you have to pay to leave your car in a car park in a neighbouring town and take a train for the last section. Verbier does have full car access, but you generally need to pay for parking unless it comes with your chalet. There is free parking at the bottom station of the gondola that passes through Verbier at Le Châble . Assuming you are driving from the Lake Geneva Region, it will take you about 3 hours to get to Täsch, the end of the road, and then 10 minutes by train to Zermatt. Verbier is one of the easiest resorts to get to from Geneva, 2 hours of mainly motorway to Le Châble, and about another 10 minutes drive from there up to Verbier. Verbier is the easier to get to from almost anywhere.
Access – Train Zermatt is very easy to get to from either Zurich or Geneva airport by train – both airports actually have railway stations in the airports themselves and you can get to the resort with as few as one change (in Visp). Journey time from Zurich Airport is just under 4 hours, from Geneva Airport just over 4 hours. For Verbier, Le Châble is just over 2 hours from Geneva Airport with a change at Martigny. From Le Châble you can either take the gondola or the local bus service into Verbier. The train to Zermatt is a joy even if the journey time is longer.
Cost You would struggle to find two more expensive resorts in the Alps than Zermatt and Verbier, but it is possible to enjoy them both on a budget. First of all the lift passes are probably cheaper than in comparable French and Austrian resorts – a typical day pass for Verbier is SFr 71, and SFr 92 for Zermatt, and longer stays are substantially cheper per diem. For accommodation, there are affordable hostels and basic accommodation in Zermatt itself and in Le Châble for Verbier. You can also ski the slopes of Zermatt from Cervinia in Italy. Although eating and drinking out is expensive in Switzerland, supermarket prices for alcohol and, to a lesser extent, food staples are not expensive by European standards so self-catering will certainly make your francs go further. Neither resort is cheap, but there aren’t many resorts that come close to being this good.
